Mammals
The park provides habitat for 120 species of mammals ten of which are primates and more than 45 small mammal species, 348 species of birds, 220 species of butterflies, 27 species of frogs, chameleons, geckos and many endangered species.
Mammal List for Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
Primates in Bwindi
- Mountain Gorillas
- Chimpanzees
Other Wildlife
- Elephants
Bwindi is one of the most prominent forests in Africa in terms of mammal diversity. The mammal species living in the forest make Bwindi second only in mammal numbers to the vast Queen Elizabeth National Park.
It contains about half of the world’s mountain gorillas IUCN category ‘Endangered’. Bwindi has a population of around 340 gorillas of which an estimated 116 are habituated. Gorillas are intelligent, majestic, gentle giants that share over 90% of their genetic material with humans. All of Bwindi’s habituated gorillas are known individually by the rangers and have been given names in order to identify them. The males can weigh more than 500lb and some silverbacks exceed 6ft.
Another globally threatened primate is the Eastern Chimpanzee -Endangered. Bwindi also hosts Blue Monkey, Red-tailed Monkey , Black and White Colobus Monkeys (Colobus guereza), Baboon (Papio anubis) and L’Hoest’s Monkeys (Cercopithecus lhoesti) along with three nocturnal primate species namely the Potto (Perodicticus potto), Demidoff’s Galago (Galagoides demidoff) and the Spectacled Galago .
The park supports Elephants (Loxodonta africana; Vulnerable), Bush Pigs (Potamochoerus larvatus), Giant Forest Hog (Hylochoerus meinertzhageni), Black-fronted Duiker (Cephalophus nigrifrons), Yellow-backed Duiker (Cephalophus silvicultor), Clawless Otter (Aonyx capensis), Side-stripped Jackal (Canis adustus), Civet (Civettictis civetta) and numerous other species, especially of bats and rodents.